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Iowa will be a tough, if necessary, state for Rand Paul. Interestingly, it was also the contest where his father turned in one of his best performances among evangelicals in 2012. At 18 percent of the vote, Ron Paul finished a distant second with this socially conservative bloc behind Santorum—and ahead of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Michele Bachmann.

In theory, if the younger Paul held onto his father’s base and added some Santorum, Perry, Gingrich, and Bachmann votes, he would be quite a formidable contender for the Republican presidential nomination. If he can get social conservatives to add the plight of prisoners and a more prudent approach to American power to their grave concerns about the sanctity of innocent human life, he can do something even more important.

Either way, a partnership between the Christian right and liberty movement could change the Republican Party. And, God willing, the country.

Many members within the Chaplaincy don’t actually know how bad it is for us non-believers (or quite simply don’t care because we’re all “going to hell” anyway). This particular chaplain, Rabbi Elson, is known as the “Marine’s Rabbi.” He had made waves within the military representing the Jewish faith and helping to ensure that those of his minority faith receive the care they deserve. When he met with this Marine Pilot, he was shocked at the fear felt from atheists and freethinkers in the military. The Marine refused to meet Rabbi Elson in uniform or to use their last name. So the meeting was conducted on a first-name basis and shattered the false perception of religious tolerance to this Chaplain.

Atheists in the military are finding their voice to a slight extent but it is still a struggle, and it may well get worse for them before it gets better. Backlash is a reality of progressive activism. The de facto privileged status of ultra-conservative Protestant evangelicalism in the U.S. Armed Forces is a phenomenon that treads entirely too close to the concept of a state (federal) ultra-conservative Protestant evangelicalism church.

As [Rachel Tabachnick has] stated in a previous article [on Talk2Action], C. Peter Wagner[, President of the Global Harvest Ministries and Chancellor of the Wagner Leadership Institute,] has attacked the secular press for negative coverage of the [New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)], but many of his recent responses were clearly replies to the critiques of other conservative Christians. Following are some of these critiques.

The Air Force’s top officer has issued a stern reminder to leaders about religion and their jobs: Don’t proselytize or show favoritism toward a particular faith.

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz sent a servicewide memo Sept. 1 cautioning leaders at all levels to balance the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom and the prohibition on government intrusion.

“We have seen instances where well-meaning commanders and senior noncommissioned officers appeared to advance a particular religious view among their subordinates, calling into question their impartiality and objectivity. We can learn from these instances,” said Lt. Col. Sam Highley, Schwartz’s spokesman.

The memo came about a month after the Air Force suspended an ethics course for new nuclear missile officers that contained biblical references, and announced a review of all ethics and character development training.

In the memo, titled “Maintaining Government Neutrality Regarding Religion,” Schwartz wrote leaders must avoid even the appearance of using their position to proselytize.

[T]he Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) began an investigation into just how much money the DoD spends on promoting religion to military personnel and their families. What prompted this interest...was finding out what the DoD was spending on certain individual events and programs, such as the $125 million spent on the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program and its controversial "Spiritual Fitness" test, a mandatory test that must be taken by all soldiers.

$28,000,000 for the Fort Hood "mega-church" project ($17,500,000 for its chapel complex and religious education center, and an additional $10,800,000 for its "Family Life Center");

$678,470 for Christian rock bands

$500,000 Oakridge Camp & Retreat Center for "Strong Bond" retreats;

Oakridge not only requires its employees to be Christians, but even goes as far as requiring on its employment application that the applicant state their views on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. While a private religious organization is free to impose a religious test on its staff, it is quite a different matter for a DoD contractor to do this. And, in the case of Oakridge, it is not only the facility's staff who must adhere to the its Christian beliefs, but all of its guests as well, including the soldiers attending Fort Sill's Strong Bonds and Spiritual Fitness retreats.

$12,346,333 to Military Community Youth Ministries (MCYM), "whose mission statement is 'Celebrate life with military teens, Introduce them to the Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, And help them become more like Him.'

$120,000 to Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center for Christian retreats, and also for Christian retreats: $75,000 to Baptist Association's Eastover Retreat Center, $53,000 to American Baptist Church's Canonicus Camping and Conference Center, and thousands more to other centers that "all hire only Christians, and many require in their employment applications that potential employees subscribe to a 'statement of faith' and provide their Christian 'testimony,' detailing when and how they were 'saved.'"

$80,000 to Unlimited Potential, Inc., a ministry "Serving Christ Through Baseball" by sending evangelical Christian major league baseball players to military events.

The above is just a small sample brought to light by Chris Rodda at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and is limited to only Department of Defense contracts; individual military bases also spend funds on Christian proselytizing programs and events, but that money is difficult to track given the over 700 US military installations in existence.

Soldier leaves legacy much larger than 'he was gay'

He was also among the smartest in the half-million force, scoring a perfect score on his aptitude test, a feat the Army says is rare.

Andrew was so well-liked his comrades named a combat outpost for the soldier with the infectious smile. COP Wilfahrt sits 6 kilometers from Kandahar. To his buddies, it is not named for a gay soldier, but for one who fought with valor.

"Mom, everyone knows [I'm gay]. Nobody cares," he told his mother in their final conversation, a phone call from Afghanistan on Thanksgiving......Andrew never denied his sexuality. But like so many, he struggled with what it means to be gay in America. Yet it was only one part of him. He was so much more. In the note on his laptop, he never used the words gay or homosexual to define himself. His younger sister, Martha, says it's the least interesting thing about him.

When he is not speaking to Beck or hobnobbing with Republican leaders at the Values Voter Summit, [retried US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Lt. Gen.] Boykin is working hand-in-hand with [Rick] Joyner [of Morningstar Ministries], preaching at this services, and sitting on the board of his Oak Initiative along with the likes of Janet Porter, Lou Sheldon, and Cindy Jacobs.

An Orthodox Jew and former petty officer in the US Navy said his civil rights were violated after a chaplain and officials at a Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, tried to convert him to Christianity while he was under the V.A.'s care.

Even during President Obama's State of the Union adddress, some members of the religious right are obsessed with gay sex. Witness the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber's tasteless comment regarding mentioning of the repeal of DADT:

And I wept with her and I cried with her and I asked her about her background; turns out she had been abused as a child by some men in her family and I said "let me ask you a question: all these men who abused you, where they full of the Devil or where they full of Jesus Christ?"

And she had to answer "well, of course they're full of the devil." I said that is proof right there, perhaps, that Jesus Christ himself can be the first man that you trust and I suggested we have a wedding ceremony and she got married to Jesus Christ as the first man she could ever trust.